Forgotten Reveries
by FrostFromFire
Summary: A collection of drabbles centered around Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Genres and pairings vary.
1. Eyes

I've decided that drabble writing is fun, but instead of posting them in separate and very annoying single stories, I compiled them into one fic. The drabbles will mainly focus on Sora, Riku, and Kairi (because they're my faves), but I'm sure there will be more characters in it eventually. Right now I'm aiming for twenty drabbles. Not a very high goal, but I'm also working on way too many fics at the moment.

**DISCLAIMER: **Do not own. Never shall own...

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**1. Eyes  
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Sora still greeted her with the same smile, that charming, toothy grin he had possessed before the islands had been overcome by darkness.

But it wasn't his smile that bothered her. It was his eyes that had changed.

Where once shined a bright, inquisitive innocence now lurked something darker. They were still as blue as the azure waves that lapped against the shores of the tiny island that had shackled his innocence for so long, but his expression had narrowed, grown suspicious. She sensed something indiscernible, not quite evil… but certainly far from the wide-eyed purity they had held during a time when he still dreamed of falling stars and fairy rhymes.

It probably wouldn't have bothered her so much if he didn't try to treat her with the same naiveté he had lost over two years ago. Sora refused to speak of the details of his adventures, as if she weren't strong enough to withstand the horrors.

"It doesn't matter, Kairi," he told her one day, that ridiculous smile shining bright and incongruously across an otherwise gloomy visage. "I found you and Riku. That's what's important."

Oftentimes she wondered if Sora noticed the twinges of black she could sense lurking in his heart, if he was even aware of how much more in common he shared with Riku these days. Sometimes she would find them alone by the paopu tree, talking about their adventures, sharing in a comradery they wouldn't allow her to understand.

Kairi remembered the blithe days when their greatest worry was the childish notion of who would share a paopu with her. Sora and Riku had even staged a race to see who would win her affections.

She doubted they cared anymore.

That Sora was gone forever, replaced by this corrupted thing. This was not the person she knew. Kairi remembered a happy, carefree Sora whose white light and insatiable curiosity outshone even the blackest evil on the fringes of the universe.

And she wanted that boy back.


	2. Only Human

I did some major character experimentation on this one. I know Sora isn't exactly an angry character, but we've seen him show that side of himself when something goes incredibly wrong. This is just a short snippet of a Kingdom Hearts III sort of scenario.

Warning: This one is Soriku, so if you don't like that kind of thing, you have been warned.

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**2. Only Human**

"Hey, we'll find her. It's okay," Riku placed his hand on Sora's shoulder, watching in hesitation as fiery blue eyes met his.

Sora pushed away the attempt at solace, shrugging off Riku's encouragement as he dismissed his Keyblade.

"Dammit!" he growled, pounding his fist against the stone wall. "We're never going to get her back. I should've known. We should've-"

"Knock it off!" Riku barked, grabbing Sora's arm before he could abuse the wall any further. "You need to stop acting like this is your fault. It could've happened to any of us. Kairi's strong. We'll get her back."

"Stop pretending you're optimistic," Sora glared, his brow furrowed with the slightest hint of hate.

He knew it was wrong to completely dismiss Riku's words, but he couldn't help it. Kairi was missing and it was no one's fault but his own. She was probably locked away in some dismal prison on a distant world, her wrists shackled, feet bound to some filthy floor…

"You're human," Riku stared at him stonily, expression fixed and unreadable.

Sora scowled. "What's your point?"

"That _is _my point," his voice was sharp as he reached out to grab Sora's chin. The hand was wrenched away in anger. "Stop acting like you can control the universe. You're only _human_."

Sora cast his eyes downward, staring at the blotches of rain that had begun to seep into cracked pavement. He was the Keyblade master, guardian of the worlds… He was expected to be perfect, ineffable, almost _godlike_… At least, that's how he was treated by those who had only heard news of his adventures.

"People expect-"

"Who gives a _damn _what people expect?"

He sighed and shook his head, rain dripping down his hood in heavy droplets. After years of fighting, after countless, exhausting battles, was it so inexcusable to embrace his humanity, his imperfection?

Sora reached out to Riku, clenching his hand in his own. His grip was tighter than most would have been able to bear, but Riku, he knew, could withstand it unfazed. Sora moved closer, bumping his forehead against Riku's.

"Thanks," he whispered simply, pressing a furious, hurried kiss to Riku's lips. Riku responded with the same fervor, the fuming passion lingering for only a moment as Sora pulled away, wrenching Riku in the other direction.

"C'mon, let's go find Kairi."


	3. Strawberries

Warnings: Just some Rikai fluff… Nothing to be afraid of. :) I really like these two together, though it makes me sad to leave Sora out. This is supposed to be kind of a contrast to the last one.

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**3. Strawberries**

Riku was never particularly fond of strawberries, but Kairi enjoyed picking them, so sometimes he tagged along for good measure. The unspoken truth of his apathy toward the fruit lingered like the humid air that steeped over the islands in the summer heat, but both ignored his alluded motive.

She smiled, azure eyes shining in the midmorning sun as she kneeled down to pick a particularly ripe one. Kairi stood and rolled the strawberry between her thumb and index finger, offering it to Riku.

Sneering at the abomination, Riku gently pushed away her hand.

"What's the matter, Riku?" she teased, a smirk on her face as she bit off the tip of the fruit. "Don't you like strawberries?"

He narrowed his eyes, knowing exactly what Kairi's intentions were. She plopped the rest of the fruit in her mouth, smiling as she swallowed the last bit.

"No, not really…" he admitted.

Kairi put her hands on her hips. She had caught Riku, and they both knew it.

"Then why'd you come along?"

He couldn't help but laugh at her feigned sleuthing. "You know exactly why."

Riku reached an arm around Kairi's waist, pulling her close. The small bucket fell from her hands and rolled down the slight incline, its contents spilling onto the dirt path below. Neither noticed. Kairi placed a hand on the collar of his shirt, toying absentmindedly with the fabric as she inched closer, placing a soft kiss on his lips.

Kairi sighed as she pulled away, eyes meeting his once more. She frowned, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"I _knew _you didn't want to pick strawberries!"


	4. Butterfly

This is reallllly pushing it as far as drabble length goes... oh well. I can't claim full credit for writing this one; I was pretty heavily inspired by the Weezer song "Butterfly", which is infinitely better than this drabble could ever be.

I should probably say, just for good measure... NOT a songfic.

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_I guess you're as real as me; maybe I can live with that. Maybe I need fantasy... life of chasing butterfly._

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**4. Butterfly**

It had been years since he'd seen a butterfly, so he couldn't help but marvel at the way it sifted delicately through the light summer zephyr, the reds, yellows, golds of its wings speckling the field like a brush on faded tapestries.

The creature rested on a branch near his arm. It almost mirrored the one he recalled catching when he was a child. Riku remembered grabbing a jar from the highest shelf of the kitchen cupboards, balancing himself precariously on the counter just to accomplish the task.

He had captured it in the same field in which he now sat… only now his thoughts lingered on fallen souls and shattered reveries, not childish imaginings and dreams so intangible that his tainted mind could no longer recall them.

The butterfly though. That he remembered. He remembered capping the jar, ripping out pieces of his lawn so it would have a place to sleep. He'd even given it a brittle twig as a perch. Riku had set it next to his bed that night, the fluttering of wings against glass lulling him to sleep. It quieted after a couple of hours, but he didn't notice.

When he woke up the next morning, he thought it was sleeping, that it had found comfort in the bed of blades he had lain out so thoughtfully.

When Riku tapped the glass, it refused to rise. Its wings remained still in the stale air of the jar. He dumped the poor creature onto his nightstand, his heart leaping in hope as a light breeze from his open window moved the wings. But its body remained stiff, rigid.

It was the first thing he had ever killed.

Riku had never known death before. The islands were an isolating place where the inhabitants liked to pretend such nuisances as _death _and _tragedy _and _misfortune _didn't exist. When he showed Sora and Kairi, they didn't understand why he was upset. It would wake in a few hours, surely.

But sleeping butterflies didn't wither.

He had buried it in the sand by the Secret Place, remembered thinking it would stay there forever, that the small rock he had placed over its grave would stand in memoriam despite the threat of erosion from the wind and sand.

That had been years ago. Surely the body had decayed. Certainly the rock had been tossed back into the ocean by a child trying to make it skip across the water, only to have it swallowed mercilessly by a few droning waves.

But when he thought about it, looked at the free creature that flew through the field…

He was still sorry.


	5. Broken

Experimentation with POVs, characterization, and tenses. It's all intentional and there's a purpose, but it probably fails. This is also (kind of?) a continuation of my first drabble.

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**5. Broken**

She had always assumed Riku would be the one to have trouble readjusting to life on the islands. And he had, somewhat. After all, no one could be expected to return to such mundane simplicity without a few demons lurking in the back of their mind.

Sora, however… She hadn't expected him to come home the broken one. Maybe it was because he once possessed an optimism that Riku had always lacked. Perhaps his sense of right and wrong had become so skewed that his bitterness ebbed through any other emotion he may have felt.

Whenever words like "destiny" or "fate" were mentioned, he shrugged them away. After all, how could he believe in something built upon the shells of battered promises?

"_But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out."_

He'd never learned anything of the sort, and to even believe such nonsense was ludicrous. That had been one of the last nuances he let slip away from the tattered being he had become… and he knew it was for the worst.

Riku worried about his friend. He'd overheard their mothers whispering about how their kids had returned as different people, about she'd wake up in the middle of the night to find Sora sitting at the window, staring at the stars with an expression that pained her as much as the day he had gone missing.

So Riku will sit with his friend, fingers clamped on his shoulder as Kairi strokes his hand with the same meaningless comfort. It does little to cease Sora's turmoil, but they've seen enough in their lives to know that some things just can't be mended.


End file.
